Dutch double for Jonathan Rea tempered by crash in final World Superbike race at Assen

Rea won Saturday’s opening race at the iconic Dutch TT circuit after a last-lap battle with Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista, and again edged out the Spaniard on the final lap yesterday to win the Superpole race.

However, his bid for a perfect treble was thwarted in race two, when Rea and Razgatlioglu came together at Turn 1 on lap six.

Razgatlioglu was leading at the time and ran wide on the exit of the corner, inviting Rea to make a pass on his inside. But the duo made contact and both crashed out of the race, leaving Bautista to scamper clear and win by 8.7s from Andrea Locatelli (Pata Yamaha), with factory Honda rider Iker Lecuona sealing his maiden World Superbike podium in his rookie season in the series.

Bautista now leads the championship by 18 points from Rea after the first two rounds.

Afterwards, Rea said it had been a frustrating end to the weekend for the 35-year-old, whose victory in the Superpole race was his 100th for Kawasaki, his 17th at Assen and his 115th career WSBK success.

“I’m gutted, especially to end the weekend like that because my team gave me such a good bike,” Rea said.

“It was frustrating what happened, for both myself and Toprak; he made a big mistake around T1, I drew alongside him and he went so deep and stopped it on the kerb just before running off.

“I had committed to the apex and had Alvaro behind me carrying the normal racing line speed and he [Razgatlioglu] came straight back off the kerb and we touched,” he added.

“It was unfortunate and this happens quite a lot – it happened to me in turn one in this race, I ran off, but I was space-aware enough to know that someone would be on my inside – I think it was [Iker] Lecuona – and I left that extra bit of room.

“But it’s racing and of course frustrated for me and also for him, and I think everyone was deprived of a great race.”

Rea’s Kawasaki team-mate Alex Lowes finished fourth in race two ahead of BMW Motorrad’s Scott Redding, with Axel Bassanio in sixth on the Motocorsa Racing Ducati.

Eugene Laverty was ruled out of the weekend’s races after a big high-side in free practice on Friday, which left the Bonovo Action BMW rider with a right forearm injury.

Estoril in Portugal hosts round three from May 20-22.